Integrating locks into a hospital's security platform

An expansion project at Hanover Hospital created the need for an enhanced access control system that would integrate seamlessly with the existing security platform. A Wiegand lockset from SARGENT provided the perfect blend of security and adaptability.

Hanover Hospital in Hanover, Pennsylvania prides itself on providing high quality healthcare services with a special focus on patient safety and comfort. Creating this ideal setting requires a comprehensive approach to building design that successfully addresses all building operational concerns, including the integration of access control components with the facility’s security platform. Hanover Hospital answered this access control challenge with the Profile Series v.N1 Integrated Wiegand lockset from SARGENT®, an ASSA ABLOY Group company.

The hospital recently completed a $32 million expansion project that has added three new levels to house an expanded pharmacy, a sterile supply area, security offices, a surgical suite, an acute care rehabilitation center and a recovery unit.  Hospital Director of Safety and Security, Joe Bellino, CHPA, HEM, realized one of his bigger challenges would be finding access control products that did not require proprietary software and would easily integrate with the existing Honeywell ProWatch security platform.

Open Architecture
Bellino immediately took an interest in the SARGENT Profile Series v.N1 lockset. This Integrated Wiegand Lockset integrates into existing open architecture Wiegand access control systems, giving end users the ability to easily expand their system with a simple panel interface board and no additional software.

The Profile Series v.N1 Integrated Wiegand Lockset offers a cost effective and expandable platform for incorporating doorways into existing access control systems. Access control information is transferred between the lock and an interface module utilizing (RS485) communications.

“The ASSA ABLOY representatives worked with our systems integrator, Security Services & Technologies, and together they tied the locks into our security platform with little effort. This allows us to monitor the status of the doors from a centralized computer system in our security office,” Bellino noted.  Ease and speed of installation was facilitated by the v.N1’s unique integrated platform of reader, lock and door status monitoring in one device.
  
The v.N1 enables the end-user to easily configure the access profiles of the lockset remotely from a PC. “The programming flexibility of the lock,” he stated, “allowed us to incorporate different functions to accommodate the individual security needs of each door.”

Easy Wiring
While researching different locks on the market, Bellino discovered many products suffer failures when the locks are daisy chained together throughout the system. This was not a problem with the v.N1 which is equipped with ElectroLynx™, ASSA ABLOY’s quick connect wiring system that allows installers to plug together wired doorway components without cumbersome soldering or wire nuts.

Ease and speed of installation were further facilitated due to the fact that  the other doorway components were also ASSA ABLOY Group company products.  The GRAHAM™ wood doors and the frames from CURRIES® were pre-wired from the factory with the proper ElectroLynx cabling and connectors eliminating the often difficult and time consuming task of pulling cables through a narrow raceway in the door.  The McKINNEY® ElectroLynx equipped hinges made the final connection a snap of the Molex connectors to the frame and lockset.

Bellino said the entire hospital staff works to ensure all patients are in a safe and sound environment. Part of this responsibility includes selecting building components that deliver performance and reliability—a challenge Hanover Hospital solved with the SARGENT Profile Series Integrated Wiegand lockset.

Products

• Locksets- SARGENT